Deciphering the Sun

Parker Solar Probe, launching this summer, will travel closer to the sun than any manmade object before it. Once there, it will gather data on activity in the sun's corona - measuring magnetic and electric fields, cataloging electrons, protons and heavy ions, and studying the solar wind.

That information will be used to provide Earth with earlier warnings about solar weather. Coronal mass ejections that hurl plasma and radiation into space can severely damage our power grid, with the potential to wipe out electricity to large swaths of the planet for months or years.

Data collected by Parker Solar Probe will allow researchers to better interpret what goes on in the sun's corona - providing a Rosetta Stone for images captured from afar. The University of Michigan's Justin Kasper, a climate space science professor, serves as a principal investigator for the mission.
This is our sun. Don't miss a thing.